Pamela M. Fowler
Goal: TO INCREASE AND DEVELOP CREATIVE THINKING SKILLS
The student will prepare a comic strip narrative including the following components: Hero characteristics setting,
Figure 2
HERO
Male __________ Female __________
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1. What does hero look like?
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Color hair
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Color eyes
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How tall
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What sort of build
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Any unusual marks or physical characteristics
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2. What special powers does hero have? Does hero have them all the time? When?
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A. Physical
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B. Sensory (eyesight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, E.S.P.)
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C. Mental
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3. What sort of special costume does hero have? Does hero have costume on all the time? When?
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4. What special equipment does the hero have? What does the equipment do?
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5. Are there any special dangers for the hero? What are they?
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6. How did the hero get to be what the hero is? What is the hero’s history?
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7. Does the hero have a special goal? What is it?
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Villain characteristics, vocabulary and action.
Now the student has a firm understanding of the parts of a story and how they all have to work together.
Before the class begins working, a discussion about the various comic strips and heroes, past and present, takes place. The teacher begins by introducing the final part of the unit to the class and explaining its sequence and the use of the point system. The first day consists of the class as a unit developing the hero and his characteristics. They decide on the following points:. Physical characteristics, special powers, costume, special equipment, dangers to his powers, hero’s history, hero’s goal/reason for being the her if any (fig. 2). These characteristics, like the majority of the comic strip information, is recorded and kept inside a notebook especially for the comic strip narrative.
For 20 to 30 minutes the class and teacher work out the various characteristics they would like in a hero. No idea is turned down because the students will then have the sole responsibility to decide what specific parts they want their hero to possess.
The teacher writes the information found on fig. 2 on the board for the students to copy in their books. Once all the options are on the blackboard the students use fig. 2 to decide on their own superhero. They may choose to use all of the ideas or just a selected few. Each hero will be different and this format aids the student in basic organizational skills. It helps them to think of one idea at a time and to make it complete. Once completed I ask the students to draw a rough draft of what the hero will look like. At this point they can see if this is what he really wants.
Setting: Beginning on the second day the class is re-introduced to the setting of the story. Again the teacher writes the information from fig. 3 on the board as the students copy it down into their notebooks. Hold a short discussion on the various options to a setting. This has the advantage of inserting new ideas into the student’s mind and he is not so likely to rely on the old ideas or ones that he has used before, or the ideas everyone comes up with. Creating the setting is done individually and then discussed with the teacher prior to saying “I’m done”, to be sure that there is no information that is in conflict with another.